Thursday, August 28, 2008

Let me introduce you to Tushar Joshi, he lives in Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. I'm glad to give him spotlight, as he fully deserves it. Have a look at his blogs, so much to learn from almost every post. He's an experienced Java user and he works as a Software Architect at Infospectrum India Private Limited.

He says, "I am working with Java since 1998."

So, when did he first start using NetBeans? Any guesses? Have a look at the answer-"I conduct a Java course and always searching for new ways to make the life of students easy to learn Java. I came across NetBeans IDE 6.0 and adopted it to teach Java EE to my students."

"The bundled features of NetBeans IDE makes it easy to install and easy to use with very little configuration. I entered the NetBeans IDE world with an ambition to contribute one plugin which can be used by the community.", when asked, What he likes the best about NetBeans!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Tom WheelerI am a Principal Software Engineer for Object Computing, Inc. (http://www.ociweb.com/). Most of my work during the past three years has been based on the NetBeans Platform. I've used the platform as a foundation for several engineering applications at Boeing where I am currently consulting. You can learn more about exactly what I do from the presentation I gave, along with Bruce Shimel of Boeing, at JavaOne this year:

Thursday, August 21, 2008

We begin an exclusive blog series for docs contributed by NetBeans Dream Team. As the subject says "DT Docs- March 2007". So, this post would only features docs contributed by the Team during month of March, in 2007.

Trivia

Its surprise for everyone that the first ever documentation was also done by NetBeans Dream Team Member.

This is what site says-SwingX is all about Swing components. It focuses both on extensions to existing Swing components as well as brand new ones. SwingX contains a lot of great components that you can use in your applications today.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Welcome to NetBeans Community Docs Program, we are glad to give you spotlight. I just have few questions to ask, I am sure everyone would enjoy this as much as you will do.

Varun:

Where do you live?

Tom:

Well, I live in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Varun:

Cool! So, what exactly do you do?

Tom:

I am a Principal Software Engineer for Object Computing, Inc. (http://www.ociweb.com/). Most of my work during the past three years has been based on the NetBeans Platform. I've used the platform as a foundation for several engineering applications at Boeing where I am currently consulting. You can learn more about exactly what I do from the presentation I gave, along with Bruce Shimel of Boeing, at JavaOne this year:

So, those were your recent contributions. Now, tell me one thing, when did you first start using NetBeans?

Tom:

I tried it back in 2000 just after it was open sourced. But most ofthe development I did on the time was on remote servers, so Icontinued using vi and the UNIX shell for development for a few years.

I switched to Eclipse in 2003 and continued using it until I gotinvolved with the NetBeans Platform in 2005. When NetBeans 5.0 came out, I started using NetBeans IDE a lot because of the wonderful Matisse GUI editor and the very helpful support for building platform applications. Since major improvements in the editor and overall performance came out in NetBeans 6.0, I find it really is the only IDE I need.

Varun:

Finally, what do you like best about NetBeans?

Tom:

The one thing I like best is that I can install it and immediately start working. The features I need most, like the GUI builder and profiler, are built right in to the Java IDE. It's amazing how much they've packed into a 60MB download. In the rare case where I do need something extra, it's easily added from the plugin manager.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

This is the first exclusive edition of NetBeans Community Docs Weekly Newsletter, in form of blog entries. So, its unique in that aspect, as well as, in other aspects too. As this is the 1st edition, so we would like to tell you once again about our team, which comprises of 3members-

James Branam

NetBeans Community Docs Manager

Amit Kumar Saha

NetBeans Community Docs Content Manager

Varun Nischal

NetBeans Community Docs Coordinator

Lets Begin...

Spotlight of the Week

Hubert Klein IkkinkI work for a company called Be Value as a Java architect. We do different project with different customers. Our main focus is on content and knowledge management. I am responsible for setting up a project, helping and mentoring project members and keep quality of our work high.

This week onwards you would see a dedicated blog entry on NetBeans Dream Team, i.e. listing docs contributed by Dream Team, starting from March 2007, paying tribute to the contributors. Each entry would be like a monthly archive of docs contributed till date.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I live in the Netherlands in a city named Tilburg. Tilburg has 200,000 citizens and is located in the nice and friendly southern region of the Netherlands. I am married to my beautiful wife and a proud dad of my precious 4-month old daughter.

What do you do?

I work for a company called Be Value as a Java architect. We do different project with different customers. Our main focus is on content and knowledge management. I am responsible for setting up a project, helping and mentoring project members and keep quality of our work high.

I look at NetBeans a couple of years ago already. But back then we used JBuilder at the company I was working at. JBuilder was a good IDE at that time, so we had no reason to change.

Later I started to use Eclipse, because JBuilder got so much features, it really was getting slow. Eclipse on the other hand was 'lite' and fast. But as time continued I expanded my Eclipse environment with a lot of useful plugins, but this really slowed down Eclipse. And every time a new version of Eclipse was released I had to look for the plugins again installed them, it was just too much work for me.

So a couple of month ago I decided to give NetBeans a try. I had read about on blogs and it looked like a nice, fast IDE. And it is! I was really impressed by the rich feature set of NetBeans, and still I get good performance.

The plugin architecture makes it easy to stay up-to-date and to install plugins. I have tried to write some small extensions to the IDE and it turned out to be quite easy to do. The native support for Maven2 was for me the great surprise. How easy it is to work with Maven from the IDE, great stuff! And I can't wait for the next release to use the Groovy/Grails support of NetBeans.

What do you like best about NetBeans?

I always had my command prompt open to invoke build commands, like with Maven or ANT. But with NetBeans I don't need that anymore. I can invoke all the commands from within the IDE, without any difficult configurations. This is the first time I got this from an IDE (soreally the I from IDE is true).

The great support for Maven2 is something I really like. I could open all my Maven projects and work right away with the source code in NetBeans.

I also like the Tomcat integration. I have used a lot at my last project and especially the hot deployment of code. I only had to change my source files and hit the Refresh button in my web browser and I immediately saw the changes.

The extension mechanism of NetBeans is also something I like. I have not done much with it, but the little things I tried to do were easy. And finally I like the 'lite' feel of NetBeans. Although it has a lot of features, I don't see it in the performance. Menu's popup quickly, working with files is quick, it just feels good and not bloated and slow.

We are just 4 blogs away from a well-deserved repository of 200 docs. Only repos, which can't be checkout/commit. The only way to do it is using Wiki format- NetBeans Wiki.

Diego, just a day before he got spotlight, and he's still hungry for more...That's why I used the word sensation...which has now transformed into sensational ;) He has contributed 3 more docs in Spanish today...UNBELIEVABLE

Where are you contributors, only 4 to go, and looks like Diego will be the ONE we are looking for...By the way, lots of announcements to be made, so book your weekend, rather Monday. As it looks like, Milestone 2 release might clash with our major accomplishment...

Since 2nd version. When NetBeans just uncompress, no installers. The projects was like classpath using mount folder and mount jar options. Good times :)

What do you like best about NetBeans?

Well, NetBeans has all in one: C/C++, frameworks, PHP, Java Mobile, Java Desktop, Java EE, Ruby, UML, platform, etc. Allows to do any things with few clicks and code. And the NetBeans Community :-)

So, these were the replies from Diego Silva, the latest sensation at NetBeans Community Docs Program. He is contributing a lot, so thats the reason, why the ordering of the content is upside-down, as he turned the tide, since he started last month. The link refers to his first 2 documentations, now I will list his recent documentations-

July ended on a good note, as contributions were steadily coming in...It was the best of the past 1.5 years!

Remember, Tushar Joshi, the blogger during NetBeans 6.1 Beta/RC Blogging Contest (Mar-Apr). He has made a strong comeback, out for nearly 2 months, no blogging, no contributions! He is also a part of the successful July campaign, where he contributed 3 docs...

Friday, August 1, 2008

July was the best month ever for the NetBeans Community Docs Programs. We had 21 contributions (and we could even get one or two more before midnight).NetBeans Community Docs is a huge success because of you.